Drivers wait in a blocks-long line for free gas from businessman and former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson near the Marathon gas station, 340 S. Sacramento Blvd., in Garfield Park on March 17, 2022. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

This article was first published in Block Club Chicago.

The city will give away $150 gas cards and provide funds for CTA rides to tens of thousands of residents to help them as gas prices stay at record highs.

From left: Ald. Scott Waguespack (32), Ald. Brendan Reilly (42), Ald. Tom Tunney (44) and Ald. Matt O’Shea (19) during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. All four will be members of the new City Council Committee on the Chicago Casino. [Don Vincent / The Daily Line]

One week after the City Council voted to create a new super-committee dedicated to approving a Chicago casino, officials are still clearing up questions over how the committee’s work will be funded and how powerful it will be, including whether it would allow development plans to bypass the city’s Plan Commission.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3), left, and Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi.

The public battle between the two Cook County offices charged with measuring tax assessments reached a fever pitch on Wednesday, as Assessor Fritz Kaegi accused Board of Review Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3) of “playing politics with the property tax system” and Rogers retorted by calling Kaegi “the worst Assessor Cook County has seen” and “worse than Covid.”

Deborah Witzburg served as Chicago Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety between May 2020 and November 2021.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has tapped former Chicago Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety Deborah Witzburg as the city's next Inspector General, ending a nearly six-month open question about who will become the next permanent leader of the watchdog office, city officials confirmed Wednesday. Witzburg worked as a legal adviser to former Inspector General Joseph Ferguson from 2016 to 2020 before being appointed to lead the wing of Ferguson's office that oversees police reform — a post she held for 18 months.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Caboargi (D-2) in 2019 [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Michael Cabonargi (D-2) sent a fresh shot across the bow to Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi last week in the form of a letter to 80 elected officials across the county warning of a “new model” of assessments that will make appeals more important than ever.

Kaegi’s office has dismissed the warning as “scare tactics” that could end up skewing assessments, saying his own office is taking the same approach as in previous years to pinpoint property values for maximum accuracy and tax fairness.

An announcement is expected soon on which of the six companies that applied to roll out their e-scooters can pursue licenses with the city. And Latino aldermen are demanding more say and better representation in the City Council’s approval of Chicago’s forthcoming casino.

Ald. Nicole Lee (11) speaks during a news conference on Monday. [Erin Hegarty / The Daily Line]

The Chicago City Council made history on Monday when aldermen approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s nomination of Nicole Lee, a Chinatown native and United Airlines executive, as the city’s first Asian American woman to serve on the council.

Members of the Chicago Housing Initiative, ONE Northside and Access Living speak during a news conference outside City Council on March 23. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Expanding existing fees on demolitions, tacking on new penalties for apartment owners who leave their units empty, attaching new conditions to city-backed affordable housing subsidies and taxing high-end land sales to pay for anti-homelessness programs are among a suite of new legislative proposals housing organizers are looking to stake out in the City Council.

Nicole Lee was nominated by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to be the next 11th Ward alderman. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Aldermen are set on Monday to approve Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s nomination of Nicole Lee as the new 11th Ward aldermen, making her the first ever Asian American woman ever to serve on the City Council.

“We’ve got to figure out a way that we can do our part to really provide some relief,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said of high gas prices. [Mack Liederman/Block Club Chicago]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is working on a proposal she says promises to ease Chicago drivers’ pain at the gas pump this year. But following the cancelation of a Monday meeting of the City Council Committee on Finance, it will likely be at least another month before the tax break can take effect.

Members of the City Council Latino Caucus walk into a meeting at City Hall in January. [Erin Hegarty / The Daily Line]

Supporters of the Latino Caucus-backed “Coalition Map” proposal to redraw the city’s 50 wards are hoping for a vote on a modified version of their map during the April City Council meeting. The vote is a last-ditch effort to try to force a restart of the referendum filing process for June 28 ballot so they can incorporate changes to accommodate a new ally, and opposers of the map call the new tactic a “stunt.”

Chicago voters are already set to choose the next ward map during the June Primary Election. But the 15 aldermen led by Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) proposed an ordinance with a tweaked version (O2022-913) of the “Coalition Map” proposal during Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Nicole Lee will be nominated by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to be the next alderman for the 11^th Ward. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Less than a day after Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she needed “more time” to settle on a pick to succeed convicted Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) in the City Council, she announced she had settled on United Airlines executive and Chinatown native Nicole Lee as her pick.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44) and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) during Wednesday’s City Council meeting [Don Vincent / The Daily Line]

Aldermen voted on Wednesday to create a new special City Council committee to review plans for the forthcoming Chicago casino, but a handful of aldermen didn’t agree with how members of the committee were chosen.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot presides over a meeting of the City Council on Wednesday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Proposals designed to spur redevelopment of single-room occupancy apartment buildings and smooth the path for construction of a controversial semi-affordable development near O’Hare Airport were among the dozens of new ordinances and resolutions submitted to the City Council for consideration during its meeting on Wednesday.

From left: Ald. Felix Cardona (31), Ald. Howard Brookins (21), Ald. Silvana Tabares (23) and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) speak during a news conference Wednesday to promote their lobbying restriction ordinance. All four have endorsed Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The intensifying race for Illinois Secretary of State spilled over into the Chicago City Council on Wednesday as an alderman who support candidate Alexi Giannoulias rolled out an ethics proposal they acknowledged had been designed to draw attention to recent lobbying foibles by City Clerk Anna Valencia.